Turtles are highly threatened by trade, both for pets and for consumption. To understand the degree to which turtle breeding farms can supply the demand for otherwise wild-caught turtles and to assess whether wildlife laundering may be occurring, the Species360 Conservation Science Alliance (CSA) conducted a new study in which they collected data on seven endangered turtle species from four breeding farms in Indonesia and Malaysia.

This data is published in the paper “Economics, life history and international trade data for seven turtle species in Indonesian and Malaysian farms” in the journal Data in Brief. The project was part of the Master thesis of CSA graduate student Simon Kaae Andersen at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), supervised by Species360 Director of Science, Prof. Dalia A. Conde, and CSA member Dr. Johanna Staerk and was conducted in collaboration with SDU researchers, Beate Pfau from the German Society for Herpetology and Herpetoculture (DGHT), and Dr. Daniel Natusch, a wildlife trade expert and member of the IUCN SSC Boa and Python Specialist Group. The data in this study can be used to estimate the profitability of turtle breeding farms and likely prices for the end consumer. Thus, the data can inform whether claims of captive breeding are legitimate and economically sustainable.

Read the full article here or download the open data from our Open Data Portal